


Daughter of the Afterlife

by canufeelthemagictonight



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Daddy Issues, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Escape the Night Spoilers, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Humanity, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Past Character Death, Protectiveness, Vampires, based on the YouTube Red show Escape the Night with Joey Graceffa, because really it's not quite hurt/comfort when the comforting party hurts too, oops Alison actually cares, seriously don't read if you haven't watched the first five episodes of Season 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 03:46:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11501115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canufeelthemagictonight/pseuds/canufeelthemagictonight
Summary: How curious. She's so well acquainted with death that she can recite the entire process without thinking twice, but she's never before had to deal with those left behind.Alison learns the truth about death, humanity, and herself.An Escape the Night missing scene, set sometime between the fifth and sixth episodes.





	Daughter of the Afterlife

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot stress this enough. If you have not seen the first five episodes of Escape the Night Season 2, and you don't want to be spoiled, don't read this story. Spoilers are pretty much all over the place.
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy!

Death has followed Alison for as long as she can remember.

Humans screaming and crying as her kind feasted on their blood...disgraced vampires begging for mercy before her father tore them apart...a sea of deceased faces have long since blurred together in her brain, and it's gotten to the point where their deaths don't haunt her anymore.

But this ragtag group of children…they're strangers to death. They don't know its intricacies like she does.

"Alison?"

He's staring at her with wide, frightened eyes, and a "Yes?" escapes her mouth involuntarily.

"You…you were there, right?" he stammers through clenched teeth. "You saw it. And you're a vampire, so…you should _know_ …right?"

"Know what?"

(She knows what he's going to ask, and her heart sinks into her rib cage.)

His bottom lip quivers, and she can tell that he's struggling to hold back another round of tears. "Do…do you think…was Lauren in pain?"

A face flashes across Alison's mind—blonde hair, brown eyes, a smile that was gentle and iridescent all at once. Lauren, they called her. The dead never had names before tonight.

"Alex, listen to me." She tries to sound emotionless, like she's a coroner giving an autopsy report, but her guilt manages to sneak into her words. "There were at least twenty, if not more, vampires feeding on her. At that rate of blood loss…and with her body weight…she would've lost consciousness in less than three minutes."

_"They aren't like us, Alison. They are mere cattle. They cannot feel emotions like we do."_

_"But, Father, why do they cry? Why do they scream? That man spoke of a wife…"_

_"It's just a dying dream, child. Don't let it trouble you."_

"Furthermore, there's a special mechanism in our…in vampire saliva, which drugs the victim to prevent what my father called 'unnecessary escape attempts.' After the initial bites, which _do_ hurt, the pain is pretty much negated by the drugs. So, yes, she suffered a bit, but not for long."

As she speaks, he listens and nods, trying his best to maintain his composure, and it occurs to Alison that this is the first time she's seen death's aftermath. How curious. She's so well acquainted with death that she can recite the entire process without thinking twice, but she's never before had to deal with those left behind.

"Oh…" He's clearly struggling to process this information. "I…I see…"

And then, he breaks, just as she feared he would.

He sobs into his open palms, screaming Lauren's name, and Alison pulls him into a hug despite herself. "Shhh." A part of her is tempted to kill him now and end his suffering, but she knows better. "You'll be all right. Don't cry."

"It's not true," he blubbers. "This is all a bad dream. I'm gonna wake up, and she's gonna be there, playing with her stupid goddamn stuffies. I'm gonna get her a puppy soon. She…she _can't_ be dead!"

 _You were wrong, Father. Humans_ can _feel. Perhaps that is why they are such fragile creatures._

The sea of deceased faces is still a blur of long-suppressed memories, but tonight's deaths stand out like diamonds on a sandy beach. It doesn't end with Lauren. There's a rugged Outlaw staring at her with a look of respectful shock on his face…a Railroad Tycoon strutting into the parlor as if he's the king of all he sees…and, more recently, a small brown Explorer, flitting about from clue to clue like an overexcited firefly. They're all gone now. There's no use trying to protect them anymore.

But six still remain. And as long as she has breath left in her body, she will do whatever she can to keep them safe from the Sorceress's scheme.

And if she has to give her life to do it… _well, death's a friend of mine._


End file.
